by May Dawson
“Huh,” he said, looking down at his hand as the last golden glow of magic faded away. “This is kind of cool.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you. Who doesn’t want to have superpowers?”
“I can turn into a wolf. That was already a superpower.” He grabbed my hand, and the two of us ran down the hallway.
An alarm started to blare.
“I guess that’s for us,” I said.
“Let’s make it count,” he said. “They should be scared.”
When we turned the corner, there were two witches in front of us. They raised guns.
Ty brought his hand up in one smooth, quick gesture, and their guns flew out of their hands and slammed into the ceiling. The guns hovered there for a second, then fell to the ground, landing with thuds. A stray round went off, punching into the wall, and the scent of gunpowder bloomed in the air.
“Holy shit,” Ty said.
“That was quick.”
“That was an accident,” he said.
The witches dove into their robes for their wands, but they didn’t get the chance to use them. Ty and I both closed on them. His fangs flashed in his mouth as he leapt for the first one.
I grabbed the gun from the floor and brought it to bear on the second witch. As he flung his wand toward me, shouting a word, I shot him in the chest twice, and he crumpled to the ground. He would’ve killed us without hesitation. I owed him the same.
“Where are we?” Ty moved to the end of the hallway, which was a T so there was a blank wall in front of us. “I don’t see any windows.”
“Left or right?” We had no information to make a logical choice.
“Left.”
Together, the two of us ran to the left.
“What do you mean, it was an accident?” I asked.
“I didn’t even think about using magic,” he said, and there was something horrified in his gaze when it met mine. “I…don’t know how I did that.”
“It saved our lives,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said, but his gaze was still troubled. “I’d like to be in control of the magic, though.”
“Wayward magic for a wayward boy?”
“I’m not a boy.” He suddenly grabbed me around the waist, yanking me against the wall.
Witches rushed past us ahead, going down another hallway. His body was hard against mine, his cock brushing against the curve of my ass. My heart was beating a mile a minute, but the sound of his heartbeat so near my ear stilled a little of my adrenaline.
The last witch turned toward us, then tried to shout something. His eyes widened and his mouth opened, but nothing came out.
He fell to his knees as if he were being strangled.
Ty pushed me away from him as his magic sparked across his fingertips. He flashed me a look of horror.
A golden bubble of magic bloomed across his hands, like a shield, and the next second, as the witches doubled back to check on the fallen witch, the magic slammed into all of them. All three of them fell to the floor.
“They’re unconscious,” I said. “I know it’s scary, Ty, but you’re saving our lives.”
“They might be dead,” he said, his eyes wild. “I don’t mind killing some witches, but I’d like for it to be my idea.”
“Your magic is working to protect us,” I said as we leapt over the bodies—I didn’t want to stop and check on them, I’d rather tell Ty they were definitely unconscious. “It’s amazing. Most people have to try so hard.”
“What happened to you when you blacked out?” he said. “With Rafe and with me...”
“Are you feeling weak?” I asked. “Don’t use your magic anymore. When you use too much, it can deplete your energy. That’s why I passed out, because I poured all my magic into healing you.”
“That’s great, but I can’t just not use my magic,” he said.
His hands were gritted into fists, and suddenly I realized magic glowed inside those fists.
“If you pass out, I’m here. I won’t leave you.”
“No, but it would be like I left you.” Ty was trying to maintain control of himself, but his eyes were wild. “And you’d have my ass to haul out of here. That’s worse, Maddie. I’d rather you saved yourself.”
“It worked out okay last time.”
“You call this okay?”
We reached a stairwell.
I flashed Ty a smile as I leaned against the bar to open the door. “Yep. This isn’t the best date I’ve ever been on, but it’s not the worst either.”
“You worry me.”
The two of us burst into the stairwell. It was an empty concrete stairwell, and the only stairs led up. The two of us charged up the stairs.
An Emergency Exit sign blazed above a door next to us.
“Can’t be that easy,” Ty said.
“We deserve a break at this point, don’t we?”
There was a creak above us, then voices in the stairwell.
As quietly as possible, I opened the door.
The fire alarm started to blare, upping the chaos since now two alarms were warring with each other. The sounds seemed to pierce my eardrums, making it hard to think.
The two of us burst out into a courtyard. All around us were brick walls. There were doors and windows, but it wasn’t exactly the clear route to freedom I’d hoped for.
“And here I was hoping Lex’s car would be parked right outside,” Ty muttered. “I’d really hate to face him again without his car.”
“He does really love that car,” I agreed, looking around desperately for the best way out of here.
Ty reached out to grab my hand, then stopped, as if the glow of magic on his hand had caught his eye.
I grabbed his hand in mine anyway.
Together, the two of us raced for freedom.
A bullet cracked into the ground in front of us. The two of us dove to the ground, seeking cover, but there was nowhere to go. When I looked up at the roof surrounding the courtyard, I glimpsed witches with guns.
Ty raised his hands, pulling out of my grip, and said, “Oh shit.”
His magic blasted away the building in front of us. It crumbled to the ground. The witches on the roof screamed as the ground fell away beneath them, and they were crushed in the rubble. Dust and smoke billowed up.
I looked to Ty, through the cloud of dust that choked me, but he was passed out on the ground.
I was alone in the chaos.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
My knees buckled under Tyson’s weight as I carried him with lurching steps. As much as I worked out, dragging two hundred pounds of muscular wolf shifter through the unsteady footing of a collapsed building was challenging.
We were out in the middle of nowhere, and I glimpsed barbed wire and fencing in the distance. Great. I didn’t have magic, and the guy who did was currently as helpful as a bag of potatoes and four times as heavy.
Metal roofs of cars shone under the sun ahead. Parking lot. I limped toward it fast, hearing the cries of survivors behind me as they tried to organize themselves.
We’d been lucky to survive ourselves. Was Ty’s magic a danger to himself? To others?
I’d never tell him how much it scared me. He needed to know I depended on him. He had to come to trust himself.
And his magic.
Once he had it under control.
When I reached the cars, I staggered behind the first one and dumped Ty on the ground. His body thumped into the ground, his arms floppy and relaxed as they sprawled across the pavement. He was out hard.
“Sorry,” I muttered. My shoulders were tight and my legs burned as I quickly moved along the cars, looking for one that was open. I didn’t know how to hot-wire a car, which seemed like a real failure in my education. I was hoping to get lucky, and that’s never much of a life plan.
And then, I did.
Lex’s car was in front of me.
I ran back and searched Ty’s pockets. The car keys were still in his jeans pocket. The witche
s had spent the time to ink runes on our bodies and steal my pendant, but they’d left little things like our keys and wallets. Arrogant assholes. Bless them.
I grabbed Ty’s hand, gritting my teeth as I tried to haul his dead weight up, and set my shoulder into his stomach to haul him into a fireman’s carry.
I got the car open and muscled him into the passenger seat. Then I dragged the seatbelt across his form and clicked it in. His head lolled against my shoulder, and I pushed him up before I slammed the door shut.
The shouting back at the coven sounded less chaotic and more organized now. Shit.
Hopefully they wouldn’t be able to launch an attack on the academy anytime too soon. We’d caused a lot of destruction on our way out.
Not that we were out yet.
I hopped into the driver’s seat, pressing the start before I even got my door closed.
I pulled out onto the long road that led through open fields away from the coven’s lab. Ahead of me were two guards, running toward the chaos. One of them brought his gun up into his shoulder, and I ducked low over the steering wheel. The pop-pop of his rounds was distant, but the window shattered.
“Lex is going to be so pissed.” I pressed my foot down on the accelerator, and the car leaped forward.
The guard jumped to one side, into the ditch at the side of the road. Wise choice.
I slammed the car into the gate and it slammed into our roof. I ducked involuntarily at the sound, but then the gate fell off our car as I took a hard turn onto the road.
I urged the car as fast as it could go, feeling the car swing a bit wildly around the turns. I was afraid they’d come after us.
Tyson made a small, sleepy sound as he woke, then suddenly bolted upright, grabbing the dashboard. “Holy shit, Maddie. And here I thought your driving was just a nightmare—”
“Hey, I got us out of there, didn’t I?” I asked. “Had to take my turn so you didn’t get all the glory.”
He snorted. “What glory? We can’t tell anyone what happened and how we escaped, or they might kill us.”
The thought made my stomach curdle. “Can’t I just enjoy the moment, dude?”
“No.” He clutched the death strap above his door, looking slightly green at the sight of the trees flashing by us. Lex’s sporty little car got solidly above 100 MPH. “Because I am definitely not enjoying the moment.”
“I have no idea where we are,” I admitted. “Or where we’re going.”
“But we’re definitely going to get there soon.”
A sign for the highway popped up ahead of us. I eased off the accelerator, preparing for the turn onto the highway, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“I never knew you minded speeding so much,” I said.
“It’s not speeding. It’s your driving. And what’s that sound?”
“I think the car’s a bit worse for the wear,” I admitted.
“Lex is going to be so glad you survived,” he said. “And then he’s going to kill you.”
“I planned to blame you, actually.”
Ty tried to smile, but it didn’t have his usual brightness. It wasn’t fear of Lex’s fury that left him shaken. No matter how we joked about it, we both knew Lex valued our lives a hell of a lot more than he valued any car.
I had a feeling Tyson Atlas was scared of himself.
“What did it feel like?” I asked. “When your magic did…stuff on its own?”
“Like nothing,” he said. “That’s almost the worst part. I felt this flare of energy, of power in my body, right before I did anything. But I didn’t even think about doing the stuff that happened. It was like something possessed me.”
“Nothing’s possessing you. It’s your subconscious mind working your magic to protect you,” I said.
“How do you know that?” Ty demanded. “You’re telling me whatever you think will make me feel better. The truth is, I have these crazy, out-of-control powers…”
“You’re strong,” I admitted. “Stronger than most witches.”
He swiped his hand through his hair. He stared out the window for a few long seconds, then closed his eyes, as if he were in pain.
“Ty,” I said softly. “Talk to me.”
“When I blacked out,” he said. “I had this…dream. It keeps coming back to me in fragments.”
“A dream?”
“I’m not so sure it was a dream,” he admitted.
I waited, hoping he would tell me. I didn’t want to push him, though.
Finally he said, “I think maybe it’s a memory. Something I forgot for a long time.”
“What is it?” He wouldn’t still be talking about it if he didn’t want to tell me, no matter how painful or scary that might be for him.
My guys weren’t scared of much, but sometimes I thought they might be terrified of feelings.
“I think I told you that my dad was killed by the alpha when I was seven,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said.
“He challenged the alpha. I’ve never known why. My parents were happy in the pack, I thought. I mean, I was a kid so it’s always hard to know what’s really going on. And I never got the chance to talk to them as an adult.” There was a bitter edge in his voice. “But… if this dream really happened… I think maybe I know why my dad would try to become the alpha.”
I waited, and he finally went on.
“In my dream—” he broke off, stopping himself. Then he started again, as if he’d steeled himself to reality. “In my memory, my dad and I were out in the woods.”
“That wasn’t unusual,” he went on. “My parents were carpenters for the pack. As a family, we made all kinds of stuff. We lived in a trailer, but we worked in the nicest work shed, and they loved their tools… they loved working with their hands. I’d almost forgotten that.”
“Anyway, my dad was trying to bring down logs to plane later. He cut wood all the time; it wasn’t a big deal. But it was always dangerous.” He shuddered at the memory, his face pale, and I thought he wasn’t going to tell me.
Then he went on. “The tree fell the wrong way. He pushed me out of the way, but it pinned him. He was underneath this enormous log, bleeding, really hurt. He told me to go for help. But we were deep in the woods and he was going to die, I knew he was. So I pushed the log off him.”
He looked down at his palms, which were the same as ever now, but I had a feeling he was seeing the phantom golden glow of his magic. “I shouldn’t have been able to do that. Afterward, between the two of us, we were able to get him into his pick-up truck, and I drove us out of the woods and he got to the hospital. He survived.”
“I told people what I did, but no one believed me. And that was a good thing. When he got out of the hospital, he told everyone it was just a kid’s story, that it was my way of dealing with what I saw that day and how helpless I felt.” He shook his head. “But he took me back out into the woods, back to where it happened. He told me I saved him, but that I could never tell anyone the truth.”
“He told me not to do magic anymore, that the pack might try to hurt me if they found out what I could do. I was so scared. I didn’t think he’d realized how hard it would be for me to hear that my own family, my pack, would think I was a monster and would kill me. I was just seven.”
He blew out a long, slow breath. “So he told me he would fix it. He would help the pack learn that magic wasn’t bad. But he said it would take time, so I should just…forget that I even had magic for now. He asked if I could do that, and I wonder if I did some kind of spell on myself. Because I didn’t even remember…”
He shook his head. “And then he challenged the alpha. And he died. So did it matter that I saved his life that day? He died because of me.”
“He tried to protect you. He tried to make the pack do the right thing. It’s awful and tragic that he was killed, Ty, but he loved you.”
“And he must not have even been my dad anyway,” he said, his voice bitter. “I must be the son of some witch…”
“He was your dad,” I said. “Whatever else happened before you were born, he obviously loved you. He was your dad.”
He snorted, staring out the window.
“You don’t really think family is as simple as that, do you?” I asked softly. “You saw me spiral after learning that Joan’s husband wasn’t really my father. But I’ve always had a family. I had Piper. She’s my sister, because she chose to be. And your dad chose to do anything to protect you. Like a good father.”
Ty’s face was still tight with grief, and I reached out to capture his hand in mine. “You’re worth it, Ty. You always have been. I’m glad you’re on this planet.”
He paused, as if he was taking that in, then squeezed my hand back. “Thanks, Maddie. That’s what I needed to hear.”
That felt too easy, but I said uncertainly, “You’re welcome.”
“Now what I need to see is both your hands on the wheel, because holy shit, you are not qualified to drive one-handed. I’m not even convinced you’re qualified to drive two-handed.”
“I’m a good driver,” I defended myself, but I was glad he was joking again. I gripped the wheel with two hands and raised an eyebrow at him. “Better?”
“Slightly. Do you think we could do less driving-it-like-we-stole-it?” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “I think we lost the witches, but it doesn’t matter if we die in a fiery wreck on the side of the highway.”
“Do you want to drive?”
“Yes,” he said, unhesitatingly.
The banter between us was quick and comfortable again, as if Ty had dropped the burden of that memory already.
But we don’t shake our ghosts that easily. I glanced over at him, at his handsome face in profile.
He didn’t really believe me yet that he should see that act of love for what it was and not carry it as a burden of guilt instead.
But I’d be here to remind him. I was glad he was in this world, powerful with magic, and I believed in him just as much as his father must have.
“I’ll pull over up ahead at the rest stop,” I said. “You can drive if it makes you feel so much better.”